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Blaze let out a little cheer. “You’re good to go then. Well, as far as that’s concerned anyway. Still proceed with extreme caution, watching for a set of glass double doors to your right that’ll lead into the control room. If you’re quick, maybe you can make it there before any more patrols reach that part of their circuit.”
We weren’t quite that lucky. I’d just spotted the double doors between two stretches of looming data storage units when another two guards rounded a corner up ahead. Apparently on this floor they worked in pairs.
Julius dashed forward with a speed I wouldn’t have expected from such a massive man if I hadn’t seen him in action before. He mashed their faces together, muffling their shouts of alarm against each other’s flesh as Talon and Garrison dove in with syringes.
We dragged the limp bodies into the control room with us and then paused to stare at the array around us. It looked like something Blaze would have wet dreams about. Screens and computer towers filled every inch of the walls. Beneath one cluster of monitors sprawled a vast black keyboard with five times as many keys as usual. Or, well, when I got closer I saw that many of them were actually round buttons or rectangular switches.
“We’re in,” I said. “Here goes nothing.”
Blaze had already gone over this final part of the plan in detail, because he’d mostly been able to predict what to expect ahead of time. He’d also warned us that the control room was probably checked by guards at least every ten minutes. We had to work fast.
I pulled the flash drive that Blaze had given me from the secure pocket where I’d kept it. Garrison motioned to a port that would accept it on the base of the keyboard. I jabbed it in and tapped the power button. A few of the screens blinked on immediately.
“The drive is in,” I whispered.
“Good. Is it already working on the password?”
“Looks like it.” Blaze had set up the drive to run its sequence of operations automatically on contact. A window had appeared on the main screen, letters and numbers whipping by too quickly for me to make out more than a blur. Abruptly, that screen vanished, and a spread of icons appeared. A program opened as if of its own accord.
“I think it’s starting the search now,” I said.
“Good.” Blaze’s relief rang through his voice. “It’ll take a couple of minutes to get through all that data, but it’s got to be one of the most advanced systems in the world. This laptop of mine would take a hundred times that long.” He chuckled.
I leaned against the nearest console and inhaled deeply. “I think we did it.”
Julius shot me a crooked smile. “Let’s not get cocky. We’ve still got to get out of here.”
The computer next to me whirred faintly, and a spiral of DNA showed on the screen. My pulse hitched. “I think it found a match.”
“Perfect. It’ll be downloading onto the drive now. Wait until the screen stops showing any activity, then grab the drive and get moving.”
Abruptly, a beep emanated from the console where I’d inserted the drive. I frowned. “Is it supposed to beep when it’s done?”
“What? I wouldn’t think so, but—"
I missed whatever else Blaze said when the screen flared all at once with blinking red letters. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS. I jerked back, just as the blare of a siren screeched through the room.
